Lost and Found….
June 2023: An eagle-eyed member of the public, or more correctly their young son, found a small key as they were strolling the countryside of Rutland. They realised there was a name and address on the keyfob: the address of the RCSA! The finders contacted us immediately, and now it is over to you, the members to help find the owner……
So, a mysterious RCSA key appears in Rutland!
Does anyone recognise this keyfob and key? Do any of our members live in Rutland or have passed through Rutland and might have lost a key? Anyone with any ideas should contact the Hon Sec via the contact page.
….and Wanted
June 2023: We continue to receive pleas for any unwanted copies of the “Imperial College Alumni Address Book, 1990 Volume 2, Royal College of Science“.
Should anyone have an unwanted copy, do get in touch. We are absolutely sure to pass it on to a very happy and very grateful fellow member.
Dr MC BLACK (back again)
(Physics 1971-79)
June 2023: MC, who was our RCSA President from 1998 to 2002 and currently chairs the board of the RCSA Trust, is delighted to tell us his recent Sherlock Holmes walk (mentioned further below) was indeed of interest to some of our members. Flushed with that success, MC would like to invite us to his next event which takes place on the evening of Monday 14th August, 2023. It is a social evening at His Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London to witness the centuries old “Ceremony of the Keys“, the traditional locking up of the Tower of London which has taken place on each and every night, without fail, for at least 700 years.
The PROGRAMME for the evening starts at 19:15 when you’ll meet outside the main entrance to the Tower (The West Gate by the souvenir shop off Lower Thames Street). As the personal guests of Yeoman Warder Gary Thynne, you’ll get a guided tour of parts of the Tower including the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vincula followed by drinks in “The Keys”, the Yeoman Warders’ Private Club.
Then, from 21.30 you’ll witness the Ceremony of the Keys, before returning back to “The Keys” until the evening finishes at 23:00.
Costs are £10·00 per person which includes your first drink in “The Keys” and any surplus funds will be shared between the Tower of London Club and Rotary Charities.
Please email MC here to book and to receive payment instructions and further details about the dress code, age restrictions etc. Feel free to ring MC on Ware (01920) 467 930 with any queries.
Mr Terry J SWEENEY
(Security Staff 1983-2003)
June 2023: Many of you will recall Terry from his many years as security guard at the archway to Beit Quadrangle. He retired back to Clacton on Sea, but found he simply couldn’t stay twiddling his thumbs. Before long, he and his wife Sharon were providing a veritable cornucopia of darts related equipment from Clacton’s covered market.
After a few years of expansion Terry opened a high street shops at 144a Old Road, Clacton-On-Sea, CO15 3BA, and that was where we found him when we desperately need advice on setting up the RCSA Double Eleven Darts team. Terry flew into action and came up to South Kensington to deliver us the most enormous mountain of darts, flights, an oche, replacement stems, chalk ….. if it was useful to a start-up darts team, it was somewhere in Terry’s lavish heap of equipment.
He left us practicing with our shiny new darts and promised sincerely that he would send us an invoice. But he didn’t! He tricked us, and very generously donated the whole lot as a present to the RCSA and to its members.
So this bit of member’s news is that Terry Sweeney is well (apart from a nasty cough that has been bothering him for far too long), Sharon too is really well. Their business is thriving and both of them remain exceedingly generous. If you’d like to stay in touch with Terry, ask our Hon Sec for his details, or you’ll find all his contact information on his web site. And if you have any darts related requirements, likewise you’ll find all Terry’s details on the website for his business, DB Darts.
Dr. MC BLACK
(Physics 1971-79)
May 2023: MC was our RCSA President for the years 1998-2002 and currently chairs the board of the RCSA Trust, and informs us he is organising another of his highly regarded Sherlock Holmes walks on Sunday 11th June. You’ll be meeting inside the The Shakespeare’s Head (64-68 Kingsway, London WC2B 6BG) at 10:30 and walk in the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson through some of the obscure byways as well as the principal thoroughfares of Covent Garden and Strand before finishing at the Sherlock Holmes Public House (near to Charing Cross) by around 13.30. There you’ll see the detailed recreation, by the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, of the sitting room of Holmes’ famous 221B Baker Street flat, and as you are in a pub and it is lunchtime, you may care to have a drink and a bite to eat.
Costs are £5·00 per person. Please email MC here to book and to receive further details and payment instructions, and feel free to ring MC on Ware (01920) 467 930 with any queries.
Dr. Robert ‘Bob’ PICKUP
(Chemistry 1971-79)
April 2023: Bob sends his best wishes to everybody and tells us that, following a major haemorrhagic stroke, he’s moved to a nursing home in Wrexham and says:
“I would love to see anybody if you happen to be in the area.”
Contact the Hon Sec for address details. Bob also asks if anyone has an unwanted copy of the 1990 RCS Register of Students that he could have.
Dr. Leslie Alfred HUGHES
(Chemistry 1931-34. Died 2002)
March 2023: Leslie’s grandson, over in Perth Western Australia, asked his father, Richard Hughes who remains over here in the UK, to explain what this pictured item was, and why it was stored alongside all the memorabilia from his granddad…..
Richard didn’t have the faintest idea and turned to the RCSA for some help. We explained he was looking at his dad’s blazer badge featuring the coronet of the Royal College of Science, one of the Constituent Colleges that coalesced to form Imperial College in 1907. We were able to confirm his father had been a member of the RCSA and had studied chemistry from 1931 and left in 1934.
And we were able to dig out Leslie’s entry in the 1951 ‘RCS Register of Students’ for which his son and grandson were extremely grateful.
They reciprocated by sending us this fabulous graduation photograph of Leslie as a twenty-something year old. We are very pleased to be able to display it here.
Professor Albert Edward CURZON
(Physics 1953-58)
February 2023: Albert reminds us about the Imperial College Alumni Address Book, 1990 Volume 2, Royal College of Science and says
“I, Albert Curzon, and my twin brother, Francis Curzon started our undergraduate degrees in the Physics Department of the Royal College of Science in 1953 (see page C56 of the book). We then started our Ph.D.’s in 1956 (see page C61 of the book) and went on to be lecturers in the Physics Department. We are now both in British Columbia Canada. Over the years I have often consulted the Alumni Address Book to obtain information about former Imperial College Colleagues. My brother does not have a copy and therefore I also consult my copy for him. We will soon be at a prime in life (89 years old) and I would very much like to obtain a copy of the 1990 Address Book as a birthday present for him.”
Should anyone have a copy of the book they could bear to part with, do let us know.
Jill SHACKLOCK
(Maths 1980-83)
January 2023: Jill sends her regards to us all from Eastbourne. She asks if anyone is in contact with her old chum Frankie Williams. Jill explains:
“Frankie was a biologist who was RCSU Publicity Officer, and between us we produced the 1983 RCS Handbook. After College, Frankie went on to study law and we lost touch.“
If you are reading this Frankie, contact us via the Hon Sec. If any of you know Frankie, please pass this message on to her! Jill will be very grateful.